


A Belated Shovel-Talk

by pantonetommy



Category: Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Gen, One Shot, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-24 04:51:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19166182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pantonetommy/pseuds/pantonetommy
Summary: Tommy was a bit pre-occupied being kidnapped by a creepy dimension demon to do much at the time, but that sure as hell didn’t mean Teddy was off the hook now.—————-Teddy skipped out of the Kaplans’ door with a renewed sense of joy; he was walking headfirst into warm sun, a calming breeze and a fist to the face.





	A Belated Shovel-Talk

Teddy skipped out of the Kaplans’ door with a renewed sense of joy; he was walking headfirst into warm sun, a calming breeze and a fist to the face.

 

“Ow! Jeez! Yikes!” Teddy squeaked, as eloquent as always. His hand flew to his cheek, rubbing where a bruise would definitely be appearing if he wasn’t half Skrull.

 

He, absolutely _not_ pouting, glared upwards to meet his offender. And of course, it was- -

 

“God, Altman. What the shit? I had to wait for a whole, like, 4 hours for you to walk outside and ‘yikes’ is the reaction I get?”

 

—Tommy Shepherd: part-time superhero, his future brother-in-law and professional pain-in-the-butt. Oh, joy.

 

“You could always try, maybe, not punching me in the face?” Teddy tried to suggest, lightly. He’d known Tommy for long enough to not even question this too much. Sitting outside his former home for 4 hours wasn’t even that high on the list of ‘Weird Tommy Things’ that had been building up since they met.

 

“Uh, no way?” Tommy replied incredulously, as if Teddy was ridiculous for even suggesting it. There was no getting off easy today, he supposed. “This was like, completely required. ‘Fuck you,’ by the way, if you hadn’t gathered  _that_ message already.”

 

“Right.” Teddy said, then waited a moment. “Is there... a point to this?” He tried.

 

“Uh, duh.” Tommy said before looking him directly in the eye. Silently. For a good 20 seconds. Then his nose screwed up and he started squinting - which meant he either had something in his eye or was trying his very best to glare. Honestly, Teddy had to admit, it was a decent attempt considering how completely non-intimidating he was-being some 8 inches shorter than him. 

 

“Well,” Teddy started, showing Tommy his wallet in a show of unnecessary evidence, “I have to go buy some bread, so-“

 

“Wait, wait, wait,” Tommy said, and Teddy almost chuckled at the irony of a speedster saying that. “I  _do_ have a point. So. Yeah.” Teddy shoved his wallet back into his pocket before crossing his arms.

 

“You...” Tommy began, “Are a dick.”

 

“Thanks?”

 

“But!” Tommy interjected, “You aren’t always, you know, a dick. Sometime’s you’re even very not a dick.”

 

“I’m flattered.”

 

“Don’t ruin it.”

 

Tommy ran his hand through his hair with a sigh. He bounced on his toes for a few seconds, not managing to stay still for a moment. “I don’t care,” he began, strongly.

 

“Clearly,” Teddy couldn’t help throwing in. Oops.

 

“Shut up!” Tommy squeaked. “I don’t care, but... But Billy does.”

 

Teddy looked off to the side. “Oh.”

 

“And I’m back now-yay, or whatever- and all this shit happened and I wasn’t  there  but I’m here, now. I’m finding out about everything that happened when I was gone in some fucked up narrative and I have to  _do_ _something_ ,  you know? Don’t say anything, I take that back, you don’t know, I’m fucking mad at you.”

 

Teddy gave him a shaky thumbs up. Tommy was still fidgeting-wringing his hands back and forth-but now he looked so small, so unsure, and _so_ much  like Billy.

 

“You were a dick, okay? Like, a Class-A dick. You just went and broke his heart and left him right in the middle of all that shit with the whatever-the-fuck-horror-monster you were all fighting. And I don’t care what fucked up reality-warping-reasons you had, it was a dick move.” Tommy was standing with his hands placed on his hips now. It would have been comical in any other situation, but right now it just made Teddy feel more uneasy. 

 

“And I know, I know, it’s all been forgiven. Because he’s like that-he’s always  _like that_ -even when he’s being an annoying little bitch he’s always  _forgiving_ and talking about ‘intentions’ and ‘feelings’ but I- - I’m not like that. Unfortunately for you, I don’t  _care_ if you meant well. I don’t _forgive_ you  like Billy did, okay? He- -He couldn’t- -“

 

The silence only lasted a few seconds but it felt like a lifetime.

 

“I don’t think he’d ever be able to hate you. You could smash all his nerdy comic shit with a hammer and he’d still go jumping into your arms.And you just took _that_ for  granted. He loves you, for some reason, and you couldn’t even just talk it out with him. God, I- -Those months after Cassie and Jonas- - I never thought I’d see him look  _passionate_ again and that-! That’s what you took for granted!”

 

Teddy took a breath, the air whistling through his teeth. His heart felt heavy in his chest, but there was nothing he could say in response to any of this.

 

“For some fucking reason Billy loves you too much to criticise you, so I’ve got to instead. And I wasn’t  _there_ , okay?” Tommy’s voice was strained, coming out thick with unfamiliar emotion. “I wasn’t there to yell at you then and I wasn’t there with h- - It doesn’t matter. I’m here right  _now_ , and you and Billy being good again is the _only_ reason  you’re walking away from this, Altman.”

 

“And I know we had this whole bro thing going on but I can’t  _ignore_ this, Ted. I can’t ignore-he’s the only family I-“

 

Tommy took an audible breath, staring down at the ground. Teddy instinctively wanted to hold his hand out and steady him but he knew it wouldn’t be well-received. 

 

A minute passed, much too long for a speedster, and Tommy looked up to meet his eyes in a cooly neutral look, sending a frosty feeling down his spine, “I swear on my own fucking grave, Altman, if you even think about pulling that shit on _my_ little  brother again I’ll destabilise every single one of your atoms until your weird alien biology can do fuck-all anymore and you’ll just be a green pile of goo, alright?” 

 

Teddy startled in disbelief for a moment before he shook himself out of it to look at Tommy’s face, staring intently at his own. Being the only thing he could do, Teddy nodded. Tommy leveled him with a searching look before nodding back. He was gone not even a second later. It took much longer than that for Teddy’s brain to catch up to everything that just happened.

 

The walk back from the shop was a long one, but he knew exactly who to hug when he got through the door.

**Author's Note:**

> Little disclaimer: just cos I wrote this for Tommy does not mean I agree - I mean, Teddy was pretty darn manipulated yada yada I’m not gonna get into it, but it felt pretty appropriate for Tommy to want to throw hands anyway lmao
> 
> About the twins’ relationship-they were getting really close at the end of Children’s Crusade (and in YA Presents),, just because Keiron Gillen wants to ignore that does not mean I will! I mean, Tommy’s still a emotionally disconnected convoluted mess but he tries in his own way, ya know?
> 
> Anyway I hope that was a bit enjoyable to read —I still don’t know what I’m doing but it’s fun, so here we are!!


End file.
